The printed circuit board industry makes extensive use of carbide drills for drilling precisely dimensioned holes through the circuit boards. The carbide drills are very hard and, at the same time, quite brittle. These drills normally have cylindrical shanks of uniform diameter, irrespective of the drill size, for reception in the collet of the drilling machine. The fluted cutting end of the drill projects from one end of the shank, and comes in various sizes, some being as small as 0.008 inch diameter. These small drill ends are very easily broken, which has led to a major problem in the shipment and handling of these drills. Conventionally, the package for the drills is a box having a base with a number of holes in it, into which the shanks of the drills are inserted endways, so that the cutting ends project above the base. The sides of the boxes fit around the projecting portions of the drills. However, this offers very poor protection, allowing many of the drills in the package to become broken, even during careful handling. Carbide drills are expensive, so the drill breakage has added significantly to costs, as well as inventory problems in maintaining adequate supplies of unbroken drills.